The Good Old Days

I penned this down after I got dropped off by a very good old friend of mine, removed my makeup, cleansed my face (aesthetic doctors forbid sleeping with makeup on at this age) followed by a quick cold shower. 

I just got back from an awesome Japanese restaurant, Uroko Yakitori Sushi in Petaling Jaya (where  the fish was fresh, the service was good -waitress kept refilling my iced green tea, 
scared I too thirsty popek so much and the lighting was brilliant - the law of wefie forbids bad lighting in my non-contoured face) and a reunion (albeit a small one) with my Convent girls. 

Only three of us, but like old people say, better than nothing!

All of us kinda look the same, from high school... 

Some pictures of foodie... This is salmon ball salad.. 

Verdict: Salmon is super fresh, sauce is super delicious but the choice of salad *tsk tsk* it is not lettuce, leafy kind of salady-salad. It is like eating parsgeh (parsley + tougeh). 

Mine: U-something-somthing-maki. Totally made that up. 

Salmon + unagi + black caviar = total sushargasm

Desert: sesame ice cream (totally geli, like eating sesame oil in ice-cream) and matcha ice cream with red beans (totally favourite since forever)

The best part of meeting up with old friends, whom you have not met for god knows how many years since high school (other than totally trying a new cafe and totally able to share to try a new food) is definitely the part where we about the 'Good Old Days'. Why is it called a good old days? Because they are the past and we can't change a single thing about them now that they are indeed, in the past. And they are those good memories with secrets of your firsts of many everything and poyoh things that we did which was totally lame which you thought was totally cool. At that time.

(1) Like Giordano windbreaker and khakis. The whole of Muar was wearing that, at one point of our lives! Come rainy or sunny days, sweats down the armpit - never an issue. Always with the Giordano windbreaker. I had black, blue and yellow *gasps. Down the hoodie, gone all my pocket money.

(2) Like big-assed tee shirt and slipper. Like tucking-in the front of that big-assed tee shirt and letting it loose behind. Like we think we so cool but actually just looking selekeh. And lepaking in Wetex foodcourt after Pandu Puteri meetings and be tiang post.

(3) Like wearing black-and-yellow above knee stockings and knee-length skirt and platform. I wished I could tell the 15year-old me I looked totally crazy wearing like that. 

(4) Like when we held the Subzero bottles and acting cool in clubs, pretending to not feel awkward to dance coolly, wiring  Britney Spears moves (at that time when she hadn't gone crazy). I have a feeling I danced like kena electrocuted, thinking I was cool. 

(5) Like having girls-stay-over and took pictures in bathtubs. Clothed. We were clothed. That would have been cool if we hadn't tried to pose sexy and ended up looking sibeh geli. 

Abit childish soundings. But still, they are the good old days. Those were the part and parcels of growing up - making fools out of ourselves but still think we were the coolest kids. Those were the best times because all I had to worry was whether or not I was being cool. Or if I needed another ear piercings to be cool. Hah! Kantoi, pengawas! No work stress, money problem or baby falling ill. No need to worry about world economy, no need to worry government or politics. Never mind that. I wouldn't have understood at all then, because I don't really want to understand even now.

Catching up with old friends is always a fun thing to do. Gossiping about who is with who now, who is latest one getting hitched, who is having their first baby soon, who has flourishing business and the list goes on. It is always revealing to see how others had turned out, isn't it!

(1) Like the wild one suddenly is the first to get settled down with 2 kids *gasps

(2) Like the quiet one with braces now travelling the whole world as a photographer and totally living the dream

(3) Like the used to be super model hot one is now fat after 3 children *hah!

(4) Like the super smart one is now an assistant working for the someone from behind/lower class

(5) Like the Engrrish last time no good one is now cashing money working in international accounting company in China (because can read/write/speak good Mandarin, and you can't *boohoo)

(6) Like the "flowergirl" one now still single forever kena dump for being vain and doing MLM currently

(7) Like the class clown is now totally famous YouTubing...

(8) Like the two forever enemies is now married to each other 

It is funny how life turns out for everyone. People change, people drift apart, some people achieve things that you can never imagine. Catching up with old friends always help me put a lot of things in perspective. 

Makes me realise that.... 

(1) Books is not everything. Last time, Le Homemaker was always nagging "Read! Go study in your room! It is for your own good. For your future". While I agree that having an education is essential, it however not the insurance to a good life. Getting straight As or winning a certain awards is not a guarantee to a good adult life. You gotta have the correct attitudes to life. The key to a successful life: Dedication, discipline and passion. Define your own success. I could never imagine myself at 30 still studying, ki siao, study beh liao....

(2) Possessing an "impressive" CV does not mean that he/she is successful in life. Those people are usually selfish in pursuing their own goals and those people are always alone and the worst colleague to have (right? *sien wan those people). If you look around carefully, they have many friends, mostly fake friends. Not imaginary *facepalm*. Fake friends, get it? There are many aspects in life, and career is just one of them. Impressive CV only means you are successful in 30% of your life, how about the remaining 70%?

(3) Married one bastard who can't celebrate your success and your life is half-ruined. I say half because while there is such thing as love is blind, and there is such thing as don't be stupid, there is also such thing as divorce and move the hell on already. Marry someone who brings out the best in you. Rich or poor, doesn't matter as long as you have the key to a successful life: Dedication, discipline and passion. 

(4) It is not easy to learn a language. Everyone at one stage of their lives, will speak English. Good or broken, it doesn't matter. As long they can still communicate and understand whatever you say in English. So, don't be a banana. It is not cool. Because Mandarin, oh man...all that slashes in one word. So, send your children to Mandarin school, learn the language. The whole world is owing China money, as of now so why the hell not!

(5) Have fun while you are young. Enjoy and travel the world. Take as many selfies and wefies and foodies as you like. Do crazy things. Overcome your fears. And then settle the hell down. Partying at the age of middleage is uncool. Totally unacceptable. In your early 30s, you..no, we should be focused on our careers! Build it up and stop monkeying around! We should start saving for our retirement and our children's educations. The thirties is the platform... we have the money and the powers and the social media to do anything we dare to dream of! It is the time, what are you waiting for! At least... TRY... Don't be afraid of something that you have not even started. By 40s and if you are still the same you as you were at 25 - nothing owned, nothing achieved, nothing accomplished but a beer belly and debts, it will be totally sad. And embarrassing. 

Looking back.... I was brought up under the impressions that professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers) are the only professions that matter. Because that was what we were told growing up. In our parent's generation, that may be the truth. But in our generation of revolutionising social media, with YouTube Facebook Instagram Snapchat Twitter, that theory doesn't apply anymore. There is such thing as YouTubers, who are entertainers and they do videos, to entertain people like us without talents of editing videos and they earn lot of advertisements. More than you. There is such thing as Vloggers and Bloggers and YouTubers who are local mini celebrities who get crazy sponsorships from prestige companies. More than you. Nowadays, you don't need to be in LA to have a piece of Hollywood lifestyle. All thanks to some bunch of people who didn't even finish their college. Thanks to these people who didn't even held a diploma, I can now follow (last time the word is stalk) and see the tweets and pictures posted by Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Selene Gomez etc without restraining orders. Digressing, what I meant to imply is that, focus on what you are good at and excel at it! Passion and love for your work - is more important than scoring A in your Geography. You can learn Geography whenever you earn enough to travel to those places and see the place, the people, the culture yourself.

I was obsessed about being cool my whole teenage life. I wish someone would have told me that being cool is not just performing that hip hop dance routine or impressing that someone.

Being cool comes from the attitude you have built in life. Confidence and charisma = cool. It will shine out of every pore of your body when you are totally comfortable and proud of your own being, your whole existence in this world. You don't have to try hard to be cool, it will radiates from you. To be proud of yourself is to do something extra out of the normal ordinary thing that you do in life. 

Gambateh! Let's hope when I turn 40 and have achieved what I wish to achieve, I can look back and reminisce about the good old days of my 30s. Even if I haven't achieved them all, at least I will be cool about who I have become and not trying to be someone that I am not.